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permalink: http://alibi.com/blog/articles.html?desired_user=Summerspeaker
CommentsRe: Young Hearts, Be Proud: The next generation of LGBTQ activists comes of age
At best, it made life a little more tolerable for those who choose or have compelled into imperialism. As Ali Abbas writes, the right to serve lauded by queer militarists "currently leads to the murder of millions of people of color and the illegal detainment of many more." Incorporating suitably respectable lesbian, gay, and bisexual folks into organized mass murder isn't a step forward.
It's absurd and tyrannical for the government to forbid us from sharing food we prepare in our own homes with the community. The policy serves to dissuade individuals from direct action against hunger and greed. It gives the city a pretext to extend their general harassment of homeless folks to those who feed them, which they are doing. Smaller groups simply cannot afford the facilities required to comply with the restaurant code. No amount of police repression or pages of laws will ever put more money into our pockets. If city official these organizations to get up to standard, they should tax the rich and supply us with what we need. But I question even the legitimacy of the health code in the first place. Folks eat meals cooked in their own homes all the time without dying. Potlucks legally make such food available to the public on a regular basis. I can see the reason for monitoring commerical ventures, because the profit motive compels to cut corners whatever they can get away with it. We operate with a different purpose and gain nothing to handing out dangerous food. The city's restrictions on food sharing compromise individual freedom and deny nutrition to hungry people while offering only a questionable benefit to public safety in return. They should be scrapped immediately.
Cops clearly think their lives are more valuable than the rest of ours. They do everything to assure their personal safety. Wearing body armor and carrying multiple weapons isn't enough; they also insist on controlling the environment around them. They search you if you so much as look at them funny. They grab for every advantage possible. Most of us without a badge don't do any of that. We simply have to accept risk and uncertainty in our lives. Nobody would want to be around a civilian who acted like a police officer. This paranoia can be self-fulfilling. If you treat people like they're out to hurt you they'll accept your narrative framing sooner or later. The stilted power relationship and presumption of conflict inherently produces animosity. As Einstein said, "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." Re: Who watches the watchmen? A look at APD’s oversight and one group of citizens starting a copwatch
@rstern22: Considering that the charge against Derrick failed in court, the oppressive institution that it is, your friend won't have much success making that case. Copwatch indeed complicates situations by serving as a check on state power. We lack the ability to materially challenge them but we can record and report. Cops aren't used to that and they don't like it. They're going to have to adapt. | 
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